"While continued support for current and future products is greatly appreciated, fans of the Half-Life series have waited years for a word on when the franchise will return," the group says.

"Your oldest and longest running fanbase would like better communication," it told Valve. "Waiting patiently for over four years is a daunting task, especially when E3 comes and goes without any beat of a Half-Life pulse, time and time again."

The group points towards Valve's promises that information would be released towards the end of 2008. It had previously announced the entire trilogy would be available by 2007.

"If Valve have decided to do other things for the time being, that is fine; all that we ask for is a basic response on the matter, and to let fans know whether or not the current story arc is scheduled to conclude at another point in time."

Will the sheer volume of frustrated fans prompts Valve to make an announcement? We'll sign up and keep our fingers crossed.

Earlier this month, a group of PC gamers rallied the troops and aimed a petition at Namco Bandai asking it to at least consider a PC version of the unforgiving Dark Souls.